IN THE EVERGLADES 53 



season or in midwinter, and must be picked correspondingly earlier 

 as the warm season advances. A tomato that does not color 

 when ten days off the vine, is not fit for food. 



Great care must be exercised that they are not chilled in 

 transit, and in the early part of the year they should be protected 

 from cold weather. A tomato once chilled will never perfectly 

 ripen up, and for this reason it is advisable in midwinter to ship 

 all tomatoes by the water route if possible; the damp warmth 

 of a steamer seems to be congenial to their proper coloring and 

 ripening. Later in the season, when hot weather advances to the 

 North, it is preferable to ship them by rail. 



In crating and packing tomatoes, the novice is apt to include 

 in what he considers his best pack, everything that the good 

 housewife would ordinarily save for the table. This is a great 

 mistake. Our buyers have grown very particular and tomatoes 

 must be very carefully sized. All packages of the ordinary six- 

 basket-carrier type containing 144 tomatoes, or twenty-four to the 

 basket, are classed as fancy. They must be perfectly free of 

 blemish, such as spots, scratches, cracks, corrugations and worm 

 holes. They must be just absolutely perfect. 



In case the tomatoes are picked by careless help and any have 

 been taken from the vines that are not full and plump, they must 

 be culled from this pack regardless of size. Of course, tomatoes 

 that are overgrown, say of such a size that they will not pack 

 uniformly in the baskets, or so large that they would pack only 

 72 to the crate, must be plainly marked as such. It is preferable 

 to mark the exact number of tomatoes upon the outside of each 

 and every crate packed. 



The second size of tomatoes, commonly called iSo's as indi- 

 cated by the number, are a variety which are ranked as seconds or 

 choice. They are in growing demand throughout the North, 

 even by the epicures, being of fine size for slicing. Inferior 

 varieties, such as culls, had best be left out of the market 

 altogether, as they have a decided tendency to lower the market 

 and prejudice the buyer. 



